The Blue Notebook

Sometimes when I read a book that is particularly affecting, I refer to it as "life altering." But when I refer to The Blue Notebook as life altering, it isn't to remark of its genius rendition, sumptuous prose, or eerily strong characterization. Simply put; The Blue Notebook by James Levine so thoroughly disturbed me, it left me haunted. I think we all know that the sickening practice of child sex slavery occurs, and we are justifiably disgusted. But only when confronted with the voice of a fifteen year old prostitute as she describes her tragic and hopeless world does one realize this is a global problem that we shouldn't ignore. Levine's purpose is to raise awareness and funds to stop child exploitation. And his method is the tortuous bombardment of atrocities that are committed against his narrator and other children. Batuk was sold into slavery by her impoverished family at nine. She is quickly "taken" after which she ends up in a cage no larger than a toilet servicing around ten men a day. Her life is colored by sadism, rape, violence, starvation, and disease. She is betrayed in some form by everyone who can use her to some purpose to further their greed or perversion. Abused in everyway imaginable, Batuk considers herself blessed because she can read and write. And so Batuk journals, and uses every opportunity to scratch out her story and observations. "I am not sure why I write but in my mind I shudder that it may be so that one day I can look back and read how I have melted into my ink and become nothing." These are her hopes to die, disappear, service only one man, or become deranged. It will suffice to say this is not an uplifting tale. Levine is relentless with horrific details, and increasingly terrible situations in which he places Batuk. His only gift to the reader is that his story is relatively brief. The ending is ambiguous, after reading it several times; I'm still not sure what happened. Such a bizarre ending and menacing tone recalls Burnside's The Glister. The Blue Notebook is an ugly story, but even if the writing was poor (instead it is excellent), I'd recommend this book. If you can manage to read it, do so, and if you can't, buy it regardless. Levine's passion is exceedingly obvious, so much so that he's donating his proceeds to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children--the only bright spot his novel offers.

What an extraordinary book, one that is unrelentingly graphic in its portrayal of the life of a child prostitute, but beautiful in its depiction of the human spirit and the will to survive. Batuk Ramasdeen is nine years old when she is sold to a sex trader by her father. Sold to the highest bidder looking for a young virgin she is then brought to an `orphanage' where she becomes trained in her new profession. Batuk lives in a small cage on the Common Street, in Mumbai, India; here she is prostituted on a daily basis in exchange for some food and a place to sleep. Using her imagination and her ability to write, a skill she learned while housed in a missionary hospital, Batuk escapes the horrors of her existence by writing and telling stories. It is here that this book shines, for Batuk's tales are beautifully written and her descriptions of her escape in her mind's eye are lyrical. The author's juxtaposition of such beauty in the midst of unrelenting horror cuts to your heart. When it seems that Batuk's life may have taken a slight turn for the better, a small flame of hope is ignited in the reader, but our heroine is not so easily fooled. She knows that to most of the people she comes in contact with she is no more than an object to be used; a whore, a bitch, a toy, a dolly, but never a human being. She has no illusions about her existence and knows her only escape will be through her stories, which give her life meaning. I believe this is the author's debut; I will certainly be looking for another book by him in the future. In many ways the story reminded me of The Kite Runner, a book that opened my eyes to a world that I know so little about. As an added incentive all proceeds for the U.S. sale of this book will be donated to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children, so by reading this phenomenal piece of fiction you will in some small way help these children.

This book is narrated by a young, beautiful Indian girl who was sold into sex slavery by her father. We are never sure why, he mumbles some excuse as he hands his nine year daughter to Mr. Gahil. She lives in her nest, really a cage, and is exploited with other young girls and one boy, ultimately castrated, as he enters in puberty. I would expect Dr. James Levine is an enormously talented physician since he so captures the essence of this girl, emotionally and physically. Batuk, the narrator, tell us rather objectively, how she accepts and manipulates her mind and body to survive each travesty inflicted on her. Caged like an animal, she lives in this very small prison with a mattress and is used and abused until the reader believes there cannot be any more heart wrenching and physical tortures inflicted upon her young mind and body. Batuk keeps a diary of her story and private thoughts in the Blue Notebook. Hence, the reader is shocked beyond words when learning of her treatment and yet has deep respect for her resilience. She refers to her mother a few times, a rather cruel woman, but one who could be fooled into thinking that her child is trying to please her. She uses this method for her own survival slowing down the attacks to her body. Oddly enough, before her father takes her away to be sold into slavery, she is naively presented with party the day before. Her mother is part of this charade, I assume, making her mother as guilty as anyone. I think we all are aware of the slave trade prevalent in India and how children can be taken from their poor, rural homes and sold for little money into a life of utter despair and physical harm. This expose, so to speak, reminds me of the Holocaust stories. Americans heard about the camps, but until the real horrors were revealed through film clips, stories, and eye-witness reports, did the actual ultimate human slaughter become a sharp reality. I hope this excellent narration startles the world and those who are involved in India who may be able to alleviate some of this slave traffic. In any event, the author has donated the U.S. proceeds of this book to the National and International Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. Buy the book, even if it's too painful to read (and it is), you will be helping in some way.

Sold into a life of prostitution at age six by her father, Batuk tells her story through a blue notebook and sheets of loose paper, pen and pencils she can scrounge. Batuk remembers her past and chronicles her current life at age fifteen and that of her friend, another boy prostitute Puneet. In THE BLUE NOTEBOOK, James A. Levine tells through fiction the story of the exploitation of children and the darker side of Indian sexual slavery, indeed of a global crisis. From the possible poverty of rural India that might motivate a family to sell their children to the substructures of society and class that use and promote the trade in children, THE BLUE NOTEBOOK speaks from within the culture through the voice of the young girl herself rather than a distant, detached voice. Her voice is both innocent, seeing the word through a child's eye, and simultaneously mature and wise in ways that haunt an adult reader living outside of her world. Caught inside the world and yet transcending it in friendship and the trace of writing she leaves behind, Batuk draws the reader into the story. The sexual details of her life as a prostitute, often cloaked in euphemisms, are not as prominent in the narrative as one might expect, but be warned, the author does not shy away from describing the horrors and brutality suffered by Batuk despite the beauty of other parts of the narrative. Although the novel is not realistic as whole in its style, even the mythical language and beautiful prose does not hide the darker side of the world described. Even the change in the narrative at the ending reinforces the stark, cold reality of her life in a way that haunts the reader long after the last page. While the brutality of the story's events shocks the reader, the prose itself haunts with its beauty. James A. Levine layers the narration of the events in Batuk's life with an enchanting fairy tale story interpretation of those events. THE BLUE NOTEBOOK is deeply troubling on multiple levels. Quite simply the novel is both disturbing and beautiful at the same time. A statement tells the reader that the author will donate proceeds of the book to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. Other than this statement, the book does not have the feel of a preachy, shaming the reader for inaction cause. Instead, the author makes the reader feel the plight of his subject through the beauty of fiction, engaging the reader's imagination through the beauty of his ability to tell a rich story that reaches more than just the intellect or the social conscience. The author's background in science and medicine seems to add to the telling of Batuk's story. The most chilling and realistic scenes center around the medical events in her life. Here, he writes with an ease that cuts through the beauty of the prose with a simplicity. Here, he crystallizes the experiences and the broader ramifications of the global crisis with just a few words and references.

The Blue Notebook, as has already been discussed in previous reviews, came about because of interviews by Dr. James Levine, the author, with a young East Indian prostitute. Dr. Levine created the world of Batuk, his fictional character, but in every detail it could be the life of one of the thousands of exploited children to whose benefit the proceeds of this book are going to be donated. Batuk is a very beautiful fifteen-year-old girl who has been a prostitute since her father sold her at the age of nine. She is part of a group of five other girls and one castrated fourteen-year-old boy who service any and all paying customers from their "nests" in actual barred "cages" for the enrichment of the man to whom Batuk was initially sold six years earlier. The Blue Notebook is at times brutal, graphic, and always heart-rending. It is one thing to know intellectually that there are children, little more than babies, being used in the most base and bestial ways for the sake of financial gain, but to be subsumed in the life of one of these children, as one is while reading this brave book, is a sobering experience. Levine has used the first person voice in Notebook to bring us inside the personal experience and the mind of Batuk. We are made privy to her deepest thoughts and agonies as we listen to her seeming matter-of-fact reporting of daily atrocities to her body and those of her fellow captives. If the reader doesn't look deeply into the little stories she tells and notice the tone of the bits of back-story she shares intermittently, he/she could miss the fact that Batuk is walking a thin line between resignation and madness. Although The Blue Notebook reminds me in many ways of other books I have read that explore strong women in foreign cultures, fighting to remain themselves in a world where all the rules and luck are stacked against them - books like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, The Bonesetter's Daughter and, most of all, The Blood of Flowers - it is ultimately in a different class altogether. It may be fiction, but for all intents and purposes, it could just as well be an unauthorized biography of an entire class of exploited persons. Not from another time period; not some interesting bit of human history that has been all fixed and done away with; not something we can be glad has been legislated out of existence, thank God. It is very much here and now and should be hammering away at our global conscience. The message of The Blue Notebook would be enough to get five stars, but as well as that, I was extremely impressed with the writing skills of Dr. Levine, especially being a first-time novelist. I recommend the book to everyone, except those to whom the graphic images will be extremely upsetting.